Bhagavad Gita Wisdom #1 Introduction – Body, Mind, Soul

Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Haribol.

So, at the request of James, we will be starting to do a series based upon the Bhagavad-gita. The Bhagavad-gita, these words literally means the song of God. The Bhagavad-gita is comprised of 700 verses, and it is actually one chapter of a much bigger work called the Mahabharata, which is a great epic that is bigger than the great Greek epics put together.

The text that I will be using is drawn from a translation of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, and he titled the translation that he did, “Bhagavad-gita as it is.” And in the introduction, he asked, one may ask what is the need for another translation? There are already hundreds of translations. And it basically has to do with the fact that many of the translations are also interpretations, and in those interpretations, the essential message as it actually was, or as it is, is not presented with that understanding and with that clarity.

The—you know, I first read Bhagavad-gita 54 years ago, and I had this extraordinary experience. I had already been very deeply influenced by yoga philosophy, or at least aspects of it, and practiced since I had been about 14 years of age, and I’d had some very amazing experiences and realizations, and I thought I had it together. And so, when I read Bhagavad-gita, because I heard wow! this is it! This stuff’s got everything! And I read it from cover to cover, and I put it down, and I was just amazed that I didn’t get one solid idea out of it. It was like nothing jumped out to me. It was like a big aha moment.

And of course, the reason was we—in this world, we’re super unaware of what shapes our state of consciousness. Our state of consciousness really affects how we perceive and how we understand or misunderstand. And so, you can have a room full of 50 people all hearing exactly the same thing, and there will be perhaps, anything from 30 to 50 completely different takeaways, because people heard things differently or they understood it differently or they related to it differently. And this is the effect that our state of consciousness has on what it is that we hear.

Over the course of time, my appreciation for this great work became, of course, much deeper and much more profound. I could probably take a verse, any verse from Bhagavad-gita and maybe speak for about four or five hours and not run out of things to say, because it’s like you have just layer upon layer of amazing truth and things are interconnected with other things, and as you start peeling back the layers, more and more becomes revealed.

The change in my perception of things was because of the influence and the blessing of my spiritual teachers, but also because of engaging in a profound spiritual process that brings about change, and it lifts the fog and makes it so that one can see things with tremendous clarity; and we all need to be engaged in such a process, in such activities that have this effect. And this is actually what self-realization or enlightenment is about. It’s the process of increasing clarity on things, and coming to the point where you can even see things in a way that you couldn’t have imagined as being possible at some other time.

So, in going through this work, I’m not going to go through it from beginning to end. And I’ll just let you know I have done another series of talks on Bhagavad-gita called the Bhagavad-gita Chalisa.  Chalisa means 40. So, what we did was to take 40 verses from Bhagavad-gita which present or ex—yeah, present the essential message or truths that one will find in this extraordinary work.

The approach that we’re going to do here is a little bit more, a little bit different. In the Bhagavad-gita Chalisa, we look at the Sanskrit, we sort of unpack things and sort of dive into truths in probably a deeper sort of way. But what we’re going to do here is we’re just going to take relevant topics that people can relate to and affect and influence in our life in different ways, and examine what does the Bhagavad-gita have to say on this particular issue. And we’ll be doing stuff from mental health to reincarnation to—it’s just an unlimited number of things that you can examine.

So, I’m hoping that that will be very relatable to many people and will be beneficial and helpful. There’s a great need for guardrails in our life, things that keep us on a pathway that point us in a direction, a desirable direction, because everybody’s heading in some direction from crash and burn to wonderful spiritual reality and everything in between.

And one needs to seek out spiritual, authoritative spiritual revelation or teaching, and then when you take it on board, it’s not just by reading it that there will be understanding. People should never mistake the ability to read a book for the ability to understand it. They are different things. And particularly when we understand that to have an understanding of spiritual truth, it’s not a mental exercise. It’s not about mental capacity. It is something more relevant and important. But that’s a quite a big subject I won’t get into here today.

So, first thing I’d like to do is just give a little bit of context as to what the Bhagavad-gita was, why it was spoken, and what it was about, because one of the big difficulties for people in the Western world to approach a teaching like Bhagavad-gita, it contains all kinds of concepts and ideas that many people are very unfamiliar with. And because they are unfamiliar with it, they have some difficulty sort of like understanding what it is that’s been presented. So, we will try to help in the cultivation of a proper understanding of some of these concepts.

The Bhagavad-gita, it is a conversation on a battlefield—and it’s like wow, a battlefield! What of all places to be having a conversation. So, this conversation took place between a warrior prince (his name was Arjuna) and a person that was assuming the role of his cousin, and this was an incarnation or avatara. This word avatara—it’s not the funny little thing that you use on social media. The word avatara means one who descends. That’s the actual meaning of the word. And when we say “one who descends,” it means that one who has descended from a transcendental platform to bring enlightenment to the people of this world. And so, the person offering instruction here is the Lord Sri Krishna, who is described as an avatara.

This conversation taking place about 5,000 years ago—of course, there are attempts by modern literary historians to date it, and they come up with a variety of conflicting dates, many of them quite different than what’s stated in the Vedas. And one may ask, “Well, which one should we be accepting or embracing?” And of course, we would say that according to the ancient tradition of the spiritual lineages that stretch back over thousands of years, when they give a time for something, people that are studying within that lineage embrace that to be factual. But there are other things: there were, for instance, descriptions of different astronomical arrangements which had to do with positioning of planets and constellations and sometimes comets, that if you run them through computer programs, they’ll take you back to that period of about 5,000 years ago when this event was described to have happened.

The background is actually, wow, it’s deep and really interesting. There was a family. They were—a king who is a great emperor and ruler, he had three children, and what traditionally used to happen was the children of a king or emperor were trained to properly administer states, and to do it in a very Godly way. But there were certain things that would disqualify a person from taking on that role, and one of them was severe physical disability.

So, the eldest son, he was born blind. And so, even though he was very intelligent, it was considered that a person that had that disability in many ways could potentially be cheated and so it was not considered appropriate for a person to assume that role. And so the second son, his name was Pandu, later assumed the throne, and his elder brother, Dhrtarastra, was always kind of bummed about that because he felt it was his rightful position.

Pandu, he had five sons, but he died somewhat prematurely, meaning at quite a young age when his five children were just like little kids, like really little. And so, there was this big problem that arose. How would the kingdom be administered when the children, who were considered the heirs, were not capable or qualified? And so, the elder brother, the blind brother, Dhrtarastra, he stepped up and offered to become the Regent. So, he was going to just take care of things until the children came of age, and he would guide them and make sure they were properly educated and everything. That was meant to be the arrangement.

But what happened, there was this enviousness on the part of some of the sons of Dhrtarastra, led by the eldest son (and he had over 100 sons. It was like…)—and they were pretty fierce and warlike, and they didn’t like the idea that their cousins, their cousin brothers would take over and run the kingdom when they came of age. And so, they had a pretty sneaky and evil uncle, whose name was Sakuni, who was really engaged with plotting and everything, and they actually made a plan to kill the young princes.

They tried it by poison. The strongest amongst the five boys was fed poison, and he went into an almost coma-like state and fell into a body of water. And when that happened, he was—it was described he was actually bitten by a poisonous snake in the water whom he had disturbed, and the poison from the bite served as like an antidote for the poison and sort of offset it. So, he—but he was pretty out of shape for quite a long time from that. And so, people began to worry.

A palatial home was built for the sons of Pandu (they were known as the Pandavas), but this palatial building was designed to be highly flammable. They had packed lacquer and resin from trees in between the walls and everything when they constructed this thing. And the plan was that one night, they would set it on fire, and they would all be killed. The young boys and their mother was warned about what would happen, and a tunnel had previously been prepared in case there was a need for an escape route, and so they got out before the fire took place on the night, and then were put in this horrible situation—what were they going to do, since there were people who were wanting to kill them, and they were pretty helpless?

And so, they went into hiding, and they moved from village to village as beggars and lived sometimes in the forest. I mean, they’re from a royal family and very aristocratic, and now they were just like beggars. It was just—the mother could barely hold it together. She was devastated to see her sons put through such horrible circumstance.

By the time they reached early teenage life, they reemerged, which was absolutely shocking to their cousins and to their blind uncle. That—they all thought they were dead, and they thought they had it all stitched up. But they reemerged, and so, it became very problematic what—how to manage the situation. So, they greeted them outwardly with compassion and love and everything, but actually inside they’re just like, wanted to kill these guys, get rid of them.  And so, there were lots of different things that happened. And we won’t get into all the detail, although it’s super interesting.

Eventually though they asked, in great humility, they asked for half of the kingdom, which you would think was a reasonable ask, since they were actually entitled to the whole thing. And out of the great magnanimous heart of their blind uncle, he gave them the most desolate part of the kingdom, which was actually desert-like that—it had been an area that was subjected to a great curse and there was no rain falling.

So, they happily accepted what they were given and took up residence there. And it was described that from the time they took up residence, it began to rain on a regular basis every evening, and so the place actually flourished. And these young men were so wonderfully attractive, because of their very spiritual countenance and nature and heroic demeanour, they were powerful warriors, people gravitated towards them, and so gradually you had a big shift of population into the kingdom, into the area where the Pandavas lived. Their new capital was called Indraprastha.

So they were living quite happily there, and their cousin enticed them, at a meeting, a big meeting, where there were a lot of princes and other kings and staff present, the elder cousin, Duryodhana, challenged the eldest amongst the five brothers (his name was Yudhishthira), he challenged him to a gambling match. And the warriors used to live by these really strict codes of conduct. For instance, if anybody approached a warrior and fell at their feet and asked for protection, the warrior was required to give them protection, even if it meant they would lose their own life by offering such protection. It was unquestioned. You couldn’t say no. So, I mean it was quite intense, the codes that they lived by. And one of them was, as a warrior, if you were challenged by another warrior to some—to do combat, or to engage in sporting activity or some form of competition, you were not allowed to say no. You had to do it. They had a very passionate sort of spirit.

Yudhishthira was known as—he was more like a sage than a warrior, although when he fought, he was frightening, it was said, he was so powerful; but his countenance was more like a sage; and he never engaged in any, what was considered undesirable activity, and he knew nothing about gambling, and he was challenged to this game of dice. It wasn’t a little square one. They used to use long six-sided, was it?—can’t remember how many sides they had on it, and they’d roll them, and they bet on the outcome and everything.

And Yudhishthira knew nothing about this, but because he was challenged, he accepted. And he—they fundamentally were forced to increasingly wager their wealth, their possessions, everything, not being able to say no, and everything was removed from them to the point where they were driven into exile. This was part of what they had lost in this huge gambling match. They were driven into exile for 12 years. They had to live in the forest.

And it’s like, oh my gods, here we go again, another round of persecution. They were, also as part of what was gambled, on the 13th year, they had to remain incognito. If they were discovered, they would have to do another 12 years of exile. It was just like unbelievably cruel. And—but Yudhishthira because he would not break the principles, even though what was being done to them was so wrong, he would not break the principles, the code of honour, of warriors; and so they ended up losing everything and had to go off in hiding.

Just a little example of the character of Yudhishthira: in the 12th year, when it was over, there was this mad attempt by the bad cousins to find them, because if they could find them within one year and identify them, they had to go for another 12 years of exile. And so they were frantically—he was sending out spies and military guys and bribing people, paying money, trying to find where they are.

And the grandfather of them all, a grandsire of the dynasty, his name was Bishma, he was an extraordinary person, a great warrior but he was also a great mystic yogi. And he gave a hint at the very end of the period, that 13th year. He said, “Look for that place where no one is in anxiety or suffering, there you will find Yudhishthira,” which meant he had such a holy countenance and such spiritual power that wherever he resided, it had enormous influence on those around him, and the place became quite heavenly in nature. So, the 13 years went by, and they were not found.

So now they came out of exile, determined to—not, it wasn’t out of anger or hate… They were raised with this understanding that you have a responsibility to protect all those in your care, and when you administer a kingdom, one of the things that are stated in ancient scriptural texts was one should not become a king or a ruler unless they could liberate all of the people in their kingdom that they ruled. It doesn’t mean that you will be able to do it, because it requires cooperation from the individual, but they had that capacity, that if people sought protection from the elements and bad influences, and desired to pursue a spiritual life, they had that opportunity under the protection of a great and saintly ruler.

And so, they had this great, they had this responsibility towards the people of their kingdom. And so, they return now out of exile, stating that they wanted to get back the kingdom. And there were some arguments. There was a lot of animosity from their cousins. It was like a really, really intense scene, like really intense. And there were a number of great personalities who attempted to mediate and get some reasonable settlement. But the evil cousins was hell bent on—it was all or nothing. They were fiercely bent on this. And so, they began to seek support from different kings who had armies, to come to their side. And others sought to ally themself with the Pandavas and to help them in this very great and just undertaking.

And so, it got to this point where two enormous armies were assembled on a great battlefield that was known as a very holy place. The name of the place was Kurukshetra. And that was determined by all parties to be where the great battle would take place. And so, they came together, and they’re all ready for the big fight. And then Arjuna was so—he was going for it, big time.

But then he asked Shri Krishna, who had volunteered—He, that’s another long story that’s really interesting. But He had volunteered. He said that He would not participate in the battle in terms of being involved with weapons or anything and—but he was chosen by Arjuna to be with them. And He volunteered to become the chariot driver of Arjuna.

And this has enormous significance, because in that ancient culture, it was sort of like—you know an Uber driver, right? And in many countries, a driver, you know what I mean, a taxi driver, or a chauffeur doesn’t have a very high social status. They’re kind of there to support and offer some service and mind their business. And so, the chariot drivers, even though they were incredibly talented and capable, were from what was considered the lowest strata of society. And so, it was astonishing that Krishna, who was at that time occupying a vast kingdom, accepted the very lowly position of being the driver of the chariot of Arjuna.

And Arjuna asked Krishna, “I want you to draw my chariot down between the armies. I want to look into the eyes of those who have come to fight.” And so, Krishna took his chariot through the middle of both armies, and then turned and came back. And Arjuna, seeing this army and all these people—and this was a fratricidal war where you had—cousins were called brothers, because people lived in extended families, and the idea of going to war with your brother was abominable. And then you found sometimes a father on one side and a son on the other side; a father-in-law on one side and a son-in-law on the other side, a great sire of the family, because of circumstances, on one side and his grandchildren on the other. And the idea that they were going to fight each other to death, to the death, was so overwhelming for Arjuna that he literally broke down in seeing it.

He was not a coward. He had faced hundreds of men, on his own, in battle before. He was known as uniquely talented in fighting wars. And everything was very personal. It’s up close. You don’t do it from a distance with pushing a button or something, sending a drone. People are actually face to face. They engaged in battle and killed each other. And so, it was kind of like it’s—and him seeing this, and he was known as a great hero, but he absolutely, it just broke his heart, absolutely broke his heart to see this.

And then he began to question Krishna, “What is this that we are about to do? Is it not utterly sinful? Is this not going to destroy families and family traditions? Won’t everything be upturned? Are we not performing heinous and utterly sinful actions by engaging in this battle?” –the idea of people becoming killed.

He was so disturbed, that he describes in his own speech, his whole body was shaking, and he could not even hold his bow, it slipped from his hand, and he was shedding tears at the thought of what was going to happen. He couldn’t even stand, his legs had become so weak. He had sat down on the on the back of the chariot. And he stated,

“I am now confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of miserly weakness. And in this condition, I am asking You [addressing Krishna] I am asking You to tell me for certain what is best for me. Now I am your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.”  [Bhagavad-gītā 2.7]

That was his plea. But that sounds pretty amazing, and okay, this sounds like somebody who’s taking the right approach to solving great dilemmas in life, to seek out spiritual authority, and in great humility, “Please instruct me, and I’ll do what you say.”

He went on to describe, he said—he was so heartbroken and overwhelmed with grief, he said,

“I can find no means to drive away this grief.” Then it states,

“Having spoken thus, Arjuna, the great chastiser of enemies told Krishna, ‘Govinda, I shall not fight.’ And fell silent.” [Bhagavad-gītā 2.9]

And it’s sort of like, we have a big problem here, because just a minute before he said, “I am your disciple. I am surrendered unto you. Tell me what to do. I accept you now as being the authority on this.” But then right after that, he goes, “But doesn’t matter what you say, I’m not going to fight,” which is sort of like a contradiction, and was setting up this whole conversation that was about to take place.

So, in the next, in another verse it, states:

“Bhagavan Sri Krishna said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead.”  [Bhagavad-gītā 2.11]

And it’s just like, What is that!? What is that all about? That’s just like—is this hard-hearted? Is this callousness? And of course, it’s not. It’s spoken in profound compassion, and a great deal of compassion for Arjuna, and a statement of fact about something that is quite extraordinary, that the wise should lament neither for the living nor for the dead.

And then, of course, the big question is why? Why should it be like that? So, then this was setting up or setting the scene for actually the most foundational and important teaching of the Bhagavad-gita, upon which everything else is built.

We all have in our life some sort of foundational truth that we hold, whether it’s true or not. We have what we feel to be a foundational truth, that shapes everything. Most people are absolutely unaware that the most foundational truth that people embrace in their life is the idea that the current body that I am occupying is me. So I say with great force and conviction, “I am male,” “I am female,” “I am of a particular age,” according to the age of the body, according to the size and the shape of the body, I hold that to be me. I hold all things in connection with the body to actually be who I am.

It is this perspective that is the underlying, or the underpinning, or the foundational thing that is responsible for all unhappiness, and all pain and suffering in this world, in a way that we can’t easily comprehend.  I mentioned in the beginning how we all have a state of consciousness which acts as a filter to how we see things, how we interact with others, with the world, how we see ourself, is all shaped by this state of consciousness.

And the first great truth that Krishna was going to address is the reality that we are eternal spiritual beings, temporarily residing within these current bodies that we have. And that journey only has one end. The end is what’s called death. There will come a point where your body is no longer habitable. It is uninhabitable because of age or disease or some accident or some misfortune that happens, and when that happens, you are forced to leave. You don’t have any say in it. You must leave and move on. And your great investment in what you called your life is now all abandoned, and we just move on. And that’s an extraordinary idea.

If we actually embrace this truth, that I am an eternal spiritual being having a temporary material experience, I would actually be really different in terms of what kind of choices I made; how I would deal with everyone, not just people I like but even so-called enemies, the way I would deal with everyone. The type of choices I would make, the decisions I would make on how my life is going to be and how—what I’m going to be doing, everything would completely change, just on the basis of this singular principle. And so, trying to embrace that idea first is kind of like, whoa, it’s massive.

One of the big difficulties with trying to study Bhagavad-gita, apart from what I mentioned earlier, where there’s going to be a lot of concepts and ideas that many people, particularly in the western world, are unfamiliar with, and so, it’s kind of like, “What? What? What?” “What do you mean by that?” “Where did that come from?” “I don’t believe that.” “I don’t accept that,” without actual understanding of what’s been presented. This principle that’s being laid out—We are encouraged, if we are going to study something like the Bhagavad-gita, to do it under the guidance or direction of an authoritative spiritual teacher who can actually help us with understanding.

Like the things that I’m discussing now in relation to not being the body being an eternal spiritual being—many people can read the Bhagavad-gita and are just like, “Oh, far out.” “Oh, look at that, ooh, ooh,” but not really take the time to really consider the implication of what’s being stated, particularly in relation to my own life, the implication. And what am I going to do with this? If I embrace this, if I begin to understand even a little bit, what am I going to do with that? How is that going to play out? We often don’t approach things that way.

Many people think that philosophical ideas are just mental ideas. “Oh, I have a mental understanding,” or “Yeah, I can remember that,” or, “I got it down,” or, “I can repeat it.” But it’s—no, that’s all very superficial. We’re looking to go to the heart of the matter. When we discuss these different spiritual principles, we need to really look at it in relation to ourselves and our own life.

So, after speaking that previous verse that I mentioned, and I’ll just repeat it again:

Bhagavan Sri Krishna said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead.” [Bhagavad-gītā 2.11]

So, He then went on, after a few verses, to begin to make some pronouncements about the nature of the soul. And I would just like at this point to say, I don’t really like using the word “soul” very much, because it is so misunderstood. In the western world when you say “soul,” and you ask people if they accept or don’t accept the idea of a soul, and what is the soul, and the most common thing that a person would say, that accepts the idea of some spiritual reality, they would say. “I have a soul. You have a soul. We all have a soul,” but, “I have a soul.” And of course, my next question to that is, “If you have a soul, who exactly are you? And what exactly is this soul that you possess?” Actually, that statement becomes completely rejected in Bhagavad-gita. You don’t have a soul. You are the soul. You are the spiritual being. The terminology, “I have a soul,” or,  “my soul,” that is actually, without meaning to offend anyone, that is ignorant. Meaning it’s not reflective of the truth.

The Sanskrit word that they use is actually far more accurate. It’s atma or atman. This word atma literally translates as, “the self, “ who you are, the self. That’s kind of like, wow, that’s a very deep consideration. But then speaking, I will just read a number of verses. Is this okay? We’re doing all right, interesting or what? Far out!

So, this is Lord Sri Krishna speaking:

“Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.”  [Bhagavad-gītā 2.17]

And that’s wow, that’s amazing! Because you know what that says? You never die, you cannot die, you are eternal. The body will die. When you leave, the body manifests all the signs of death. But you do not die. And when you reside within the body—and it describes in the Mundaka Upanishad that the atma actually resides within the region of the heart, in terms of location within the body, and there are five types of subtle air that are moving throughout the body, and the atma lends consciousness to the body and to the mind through these subtle channels.

Next verse:

“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” [Bhagavad-gītā 2.20]

So again, whoa, that’s ex—I mean this is one of the things that a lot of people will struggle with. There is a declaration here that you are eternal, not just into the future, but also into the past. You have existed eternally—that is the nature of whatever is actually spiritual.

Material things have a beginning and an end; that which is spiritual is without beginning and without end. And of course, that just opens up another, oh my gods, “So do you mean…” There’s going to be all kinds of questions that that come from that.

Then speaking specifically in relation to the battle that was to take place.

“The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can he be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind.” [Bhagavad-gītā 2.23]

“This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same.” [Bhagavad-gītā 2.24]

So, I’ll just address a couple of points there that might throw people off. One of them is really important: “eternally the same” is important. And yogis would meditate in this way to establish this reality, that I exist without change. You can remember when you had a very young child’s body, possibly, depends on the individual. But it’s very possible. I can remember back to when I was about 6 months old some things that happened. But I don’t know if that’s—not many people can go that far back. But most people can remember when you were a child, some experience.

You can remember when you were an older child. You can remember things from your teenage years. You can remember attaining adulthood. You can remember years of maturity, if you’re that old. You can remember the state of being in a middle-aged body. In my case the body is very old, 70 plus years, and it’s like, okay, it has always been the same unchanging person that has experienced the different transformations and the different stages of life. And your identity as the person who remembers, who knows they experience these things, is not changing. Your identity is not changing, even though your body is constantly changing.

The other term “all-pervading” might throw some people off in the description of the nature of the soul, or the atma, the spiritual being. This all-pervading doesn’t mean I as an individual am all pervasive. No, it is a description—this sanskrit sarva-gatah, it describes as that everywhere you will find souls. The symptom of the presence of a soul is life. The characteristic, this manifestation called life, or when something is living, is because of a spiritual presence. Everything that’s showing signs of life means that there is a spiritual being present there. So, we’re talking of insects, birds, animals, vegetation, that there is actually a spiritual existence there. And that’s what it means by being all pervading.

Then Krishna states a little bit later—because it’s just like, oh, this is mindboggling, these declarations, if we really consider them. He states:

“Some look on the soul as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all.”  [Bhagavad-gītā 2.29]

And this is another fact. You may be highly intelligent. You may be even recognized as a scientist and hear these proclamations, and just go, “What are you talking about? I don’t understand what you’re saying. I don’t accept it.”

I can remember when my spiritual master, Bhaktivedanta, one of my spiritual teachers, when he first went to Moscow, and he spoke at Moscow University, in the very early ‘70s. It was at a time when the pervasive and underlying philosophy that was adopted was reductionist materialism, where material elements are only, the only reality. There is no spiritual thing. There’s nothing spiritual. Everything is just made of atoms. It’s, atoms are the only truth. And for somebody that’s in that consciousness, even though they may be a great scientist, they may be a mathematician, hearing these things is just—they just don’t get it. It just doesn’t even register. And again it’s because of the state of consciousness.

And after speaking with a number of these professors at Moscow University, some of them were just blown out, and they thought it was amazing, and they knew there was something going on. A big chunk of them just out of hand utterly rejected it as just a superstitious idea. It was unintelligible. And Bhaktivedanta, in relaying what had happen, read, or quoted that quote:

“Some look on the soul as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all.”  [Bhagavad-gītā 2.29]

And then, in the next verse:

“O descendant of Bharata, he who dwells in the body is eternal and can never be slain. Therefore, you need not grieve for any creature.” [Bhagavad-gītā 2.30]

This was foundational.

And I’ll just touch on another point just really quickly before we end. Not only are you not the body, it is understood and part of the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita that you actually have two bodies: a subtle body—this is called the linga sarira. Sarira means body; linga sarira; and you have the external growth body which is called sthula sarira. The subtle body is comprised primarily of the mind, couple of other things, but primarily of the mind. And so, the understanding was you are neither the body nor are you the mind, that these are coverings of the living being. And to make that point apparent, there is a clear distinction that is made between the living being and the mind.

So, in one verse, it states:

“One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.”  [Bhagavad-gītā 6.5]

And that is something that’s repeated a number of times, where the mind, if one surrenders to the mind and just follows all the stuff going on up there, you can be led to the most abysmal places. Just ask anybody, or if you yourself have ever suffered from grave depression where you’re just in the world of the mind, and it’s gone into this deep dark hole.

So, one is taught that they must exercise control of the mind. It is our job to determine the contents of our mind, what we will think about, how we will think about things. We are meant to be making those conscious decisions.

So, this fundamental understanding of being neither the body nor the mind is the foundation of all the other teachings that will come through the Bhagavad-gita. And this understanding, if we aspire to cultivate an appreciation and experience the reality of that, is so transformative that your whole life will change. It will go from being an enormous struggle for some people, from a feeling sometimes purposeless, and the big question, “What’s it all for? What’s it all about?” to an experience of joyfulness and wonderful purpose and the development of spiritual love. The way in which you will not only—how you look at yourself but how you look at others and how you look at the world will absolutely transform with the cultivation of this appreciation.

So, this is the first thing on Bhagavad-gita. We okay with that or what? Yeah, it’s amazing. Anybody have a question? We’ll take one or two quick questions, if anybody has? May not have any questions.

And what’s just so astonishing for me and proof of how out of it you can be, the very first time I read Bhagavad-gita, 50 plus years ago, cover to cover, none of that jumped out at me. I kind of already had known that I’m not the body, but I didn’t understand the implication of that in relation to how everyone lives, how we live in the world and things. That was—it was just like, wwwssshh [mimes something flying over his head] it just went by like nothing. Now I’m just constantly amazed even at just that reality.

Okay? All good? If you have any questions later, I think they’re going to have a little meal, feel free to ask and we’ll try and address them.

So, I’d just like to close out with a short chant because it’s this activity, it’s process that is what is transformative. This is what gives you vision, gives you realization, makes it so that you do understand and appreciate.

I will chant the Maha Mantra, the Hare Krishna Mantra, very appropriate, we’ve been talking about Krishna. And as James pointed out, the process of meditation upon these sacred sounds, these holy names, is not a process of—it’s not a mental activity. It is just opening up your ears, allowing these transcendental sounds to enter your heart, and just rest your heart, rest your mind, rest your very self in this sweet ocean of transcendental sound.